Abstract: A method and system for caching graphic information for display in a graphics processing system to avoid repeated rendering each time a graphic is required to be re drawn. A developer of an application program can specify which graphic objects should be cached, and request that caching be carried out for those graphics. Devices may also specify whether caching is desired, and this preference may be overridden by the caching system. The caching system may create a single cache object for several devices, or may create several cache objects for corresponding devices, depending on the characteristics of the devices. The objects are cached in a device-dependent manner. The cached graphic may be sent to methods and devices in the same mariner that any other graphic is sent.

Abstract: Timing apparatus for use with a computer system works with clock hardware which periodically generates a tick update signal. The timing apparatus uses a floating point number to maintain a total tick count for representing absolute time so that both a large range and a high resolution can be accommodated. However, since floating point operations can not always be used at hardware, or interrupt, levels and there are some cases where a hardware-dependent time representation will produce performance gains, a hardware dependent clock system is also provided. The clock system is provided with a flexible interface by using object-oriented programming techniques and providing three clock objects that provide for three different clock representations. Each of the objects provides its own methods for converting between the time representation that it uses and the time representations used by the other objects.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically saving changes of a document as they occur is disclosed. An object oriented framework is used to facilitate the processing and assure document integrity throughout the processing.

Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. Since the view system creates a view defined by the visible area definition, the view can be made non-rectilinear by providing a suitable definition. The visible area definition may define a visible area of any arbitrary two-dimensional shape, including, but not limited to, rectilinear, disjoint, elliptical, etc. This mechanism makes it possible to provide a single drawing canvas comprised of non-contiguous areas and enhances traditionally rectangular window systems because it allows windows to have any arbitrary two-dimensional shape.

Abstract: A view system is provided for each application program in a computer system in order to display application-generated information on a display. To increase graphic speed, the view system transfers graphic information directly into the screen buffer into a screen buffer area defined by a visible area definition. The view system provides support for minimal recomputation required for a correct display of data in several views when one view is changed. First, the view system generates an update request each time a change is made to one view, but the update request is only forwarded to those views which are affected by the change. Second, update requests are collected over a period of time and used to determine an invalid area caused by all of the requests and this latter invalid area is used to update each affected view.

Abstract: An object-oriented window manager provides coordination between window displays generated by separate application programs by computing and storing the visible area of each application window each time displayed windows are changed. Each application program directly communicates with the screen buffer memory in order to redraw portions of the screen corresponding to its display area using the visible area computed by the window manager. Each application program communicates with the object-oriented window manager by creating a window object which provides flexible display capabilities that are transparent to the application program. Several techniques are used to decrease the visible area computation time. First, as mentioned above a copy of the visible area is stored or "cached" in each window object. This copy can be used if the application program needs to redraw the window area and the visible area has not been changed.

Abstract: A human oriented object programming system provides an interactive and dynamic process for the incremental building of computer programs which facilitates the development of complex computer programs such as operating systems and large applications with graphic user interfaces (GUIs). The program is modeled as a collection of units called components. A component represents a single compilable language element such as a class or a function. The major functionalities are the database, the compiler, build and link mechanism. The database stores the components and properties. The compiler, along with compiling the source code of a property, and generating object code is responsible for calculating the dependencies associated with a component. The build mechanism uses properties of components along with the compiler generated dependencies to correctly and efficiently sequence the compilation of components during a build process.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for an innovative object oriented framework system is disclosed. The system uses an innovative load architecture for a framework application by multiple users. The load architecture implements functions, static data and classes in a more flexible manner than prior operating systems.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for defining customizable pick, hit or find detection criteria for geometric types including curves and using the results of the search as a basis for determining whether to perform an action. According to the inventive method, a search protocol is defined for geometric types. The search criteria is compared with graphic objects to determine whether the object matches the criteria. Based on the results of the comparison, an output is produced. In addition to allowing customized hit criteria for primitive geometric types, the hit object framework allows hit criteria to be specified for geometric types created by the application developer.

Abstract: An apparatus for enabling an object-oriented application to access in an object-oriented manner a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer and a memory component in the computer. A code library is stored in the memory component. The code library includes computer program logic implementing an object-oriented class library. The object-oriented class library comprises related object-oriented classes for enabling the application to access in an object-oriented manner services provided by the operating system. The object-oriented classes include methods for accessing the operating system services using procedural function calls compatible with the native procedural interface of the operating system. The computer processes object-oriented statements contained in the application and defined by the class library by executing methods from the class library corresponding to the object-oriented statements.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for an object based notification system. The notification system is designed in a flexible manner to support change notification in an object based operating system.

Abstract: Novel object-oriented client-server facility (CSF) and networking service facility (NSF) interfaces implement communication between application programs residing in client and server nodes of a distributed services network. The CSF interface includes remote procedure call (RPC) objects for invoking and responding to service requests at the nodes, and application programming interface (API) objects for transporting those requests between the nodes. However, the API objects only provide communication transports within a node. Accordingly, the API and RPC objects interact with dynamically-configurable protocol stacks within the NSF interfaces to complete the transport mechanism needed by an application program on the client node when accessing services on a remote server node.

Abstract: A technique for providing routing of various multimedia events throughout the course of a multimedia presentation using a computer with a storage and a display. A processor with an attached display, storage and multimedia device builds a component object in the storage of the processor for managing the multimedia device including at least one port for exchanging multimedia information. The processor includes a connection object for connecting the at least one port to the multimedia device to facilitate the exchange of multimedia information and the processor routes information between the multimedia device and the component object port.

Abstract: An object-oriented file system in an object-oriented operating system includes a file system entity class that is subclassed into a volume, directory and file subclass. These classes encapsulate standard file system properties such as name, creation date, and size, as well as standard operations such as create, open, close, and property accessors. Using object-oriented programming, the class properties and operations can easily be modified and extended. Also provided is a convenient and efficient means for searching through the entities, and collecting heterogeneous sets. Further, a category of notification classes is provided for notifying clients when an entity has changed. Still further, user authentication and protection domains are used to protect against unauthorized access. Finally, a means for working with foreign file systems running under different operating systems is provided.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically selecting a set of characters and applying a font so that a user sees the characters and fonts expected to appear in a document. The preferred embodiment of the invention is used when a client applies a font style change to a range of characters. The logic intelligently applies the font style to the selection. For example, applying the Chicago font to the characters ".SIGMA. n/2" would produce ".SIGMA. n/2".

Abstract: Browsing through a diverse set of resources residing on a network using a name service protocol is accomplished with an object oriented operating system. A window is displayed with several resource books. A resource book is selected by the user and the computer resources associated with the selected book are displayed in another window. Attached to the page of the book, tabs indicate the type of resources and are used to navigate through the book. Upon selection of a specific resource, the user may direct the resource to implement a task within a directed fashion. Furthermore, the system allows the user to form personal directories to facilitate the selection of frequently utilized resources.

Abstract: Novel object-oriented client-server facility (CSF) and networking service facility (NSF) interfaces implement communication between application programs residing in client and server nodes of a distributed services network. The CSF interface includes remote procedure call (RPC) objects for invoking and responding to service requests at the nodes, and application programming interface (API) objects for transporting those requests between the nodes. However, the API objects only provide communication transports within a node. Accordingly, the API and RPC objects interact with dynamically-configurable protocol stacks within the NSF interfaces to complete the transport mechanism needed by an application program on the client node when accessing services on a remote server node. A preferred embodiment provides an efficient way to perform object operations in a broadcast fashion over a communication network and ensures the receipt and execution of the operation by each target of the broadcast.

Abstract: An object-oriented printing interface includes document grouping or folio objects which, once created, provide complete and flexible printing capability that is transparent to an application program. The printing interface objects include objects that are capable of automatically paginating printable information in several different formats, providing page composition including the addition of margins, footnotes, page numbers and registration marks, n-up printing and page imposition and combining text material with graphic material.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically selecting a font so that a user sees the characters and fonts expected to appear in a document. The preferred embodiment of the invention employs a first process when a character, or string of characters, is entered into a text stream. If the character is missing from the font specified in the current typing style, the process selects a font that can display the character. For example, if the code for a ".SIGMA." is inserted before "n/2" the process would automatically style the code with a font that could display the ".SIGMA.". Styling a character means that the character will always have a font style associated with the character.

Abstract: A client-server facility (CSF) interface and networking service facility (NSF) interface implement communication between application programs residing in client and server nodes of a distributed services network. The CSF interface includes remote procedure call (RPC) objects for invoking and responding to service requests at the nodes, and application programming interface (API) objects for transporting those requests between the nodes. However, the API objects only provide communication transports within a node. Accordingly, the API and RPC objects interact with dynamically-configurable protocol stacks within the NSF interfaces to complete the transport mechanism needed by an application program on the client node when accessing services on a remote server node.